09 March 2012

He Said It: Adam Smith

An early statement of Adam Smith's nascent theory of unintended order, from a now lost manuscript Smith wrote at the age of 33:

"Man is generally considered by statesmen and projectors as the materials of a sort of political mechanics. Projectors disturb nature in the course of her operations in human affairs; and it requires no more than to let her alone, and give her fair play in the pursuit of her ends, that she may establish her own designs."

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James R Otteson PhD

About Me

I am executive director of the BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism, the Thomas W. Smith Presidential Chair in Business Ethics, and Professor of Economics at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I am also a Senior Scholar at the Fund for American Studies in Washington, DC, a Research Professor in the Freedom Center and Department of Philosophy at the University of Arizona, and a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute in California. I have taught previously at Yeshiva University, New York University, Georgetown University, and the University of Alabama.